


I'll Give Them Shelter

by Abalisk



Series: Alabaster Pieces [5]
Category: One Piece
Genre: ASL Brothers, Adopted Children, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood Friends, Gen, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2018-12-23 14:46:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11991945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abalisk/pseuds/Abalisk
Summary: "Flight of the Albatross" AU where Leith goes back in time and raises Ace from infancy.





	1. Chapter 1

Leith scowled up at the hulking bear of a man, her stance wide and shoulders firm, crossed arms nearly touching his heaving stomach as he seethed too close to her. She had to actually crane her head back to properly see his face, her neck hurting a bit at the uncomfortable position. Which honestly… considering everyone on her crew was either on a scale between stupid tall and  _fucking massive_ , she would think she’d become used to the crick in her neck.

_Apparently not._

“Roger entrusted  _me_  to be the one to raise his child,” the Vice Admiral growled, sounding very much akin to what his surname suggested. A monkey of some sort… or maybe a great ape. A really big one… Gorilla perhaps…

Her eyes still stung from crying, but she would remain resolute.

She sniffed. “Bullshit,” Leith grumbled, stabbing at his puffed up chest with a jabbing finger, an action that he didn’t even flinch at, “A man of your station doesn’t have the bloody  _time_  to take care of an infant, let alone raise a child of any age. No… You’re going to dump him somewhere. Probably on some poor sod and I ain’t having it, not after what poor Rouge has been through.”

Because that truly had been hell. The woman had struggled night and day to keep her baby hidden from the marines, the bastards knocking down doors and carting people away in the middle of the night. They had kill-on-sight orders for any mother that acted suspiciously and weren’t above shooting anyone who resisted. It was martial law at its finest.

A witch hunt.

Leith gritted her teeth, her senses brushing over the infant snoozing away peacefully in an open drawer nearby, a makeshift crib that was the best Garp could do in his cabin. Her observation haki told her he was fine, warm with a full belly… And maybe a bit gassy, but that wasn’t a big deal. He was safe, and that was what mattered.

This was her captain. Her crewmate. Her _friend_. It may not have been  _her_  Ace exactly—it certainly couldn’t be since he was a dimension away—but that wasn’t going to stop her from taking care of him. There was no way in  _hell_  she was going to allow his shitty childhood to repeat here.

And if that meant she had to have a throwdown with  _Garp the Hero_  of all people, then so be it.

“I don’t even know who you are, lady,” Garp mumbled, face still set in that severe frown of his that made his squashed mug look more like a fuzzy toad.

Leith shrugged. “You didn’t know Rouge either, but you still cried when she died,” she said with a tilt of her head. His frown, if possible, deepened even further.  _Psh… men. Always having to put up a tough guy act,_  she thought with utter annoyance. Then with a heaving sigh, she placed her hands on her hips and glared at the floorboards. “Look, I’m not asking you to trust or even like me. But Ace needs someone who will  _actually_  care and look after him, and I’m more than willing to do that.”

“Why?” he asked gruffly, voice solemn, “Why would you do this? Do you even realize the amount of danger you’d be in?”

Leith huffed at that, looking at at the man with a wry grin curling her lips. “If I let danger dictate my every action I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere in life,” she said with an amused air, which wasn’t exactly true. She was a coward through and through. There were so many things on the sea and land that frightened her senseless… but she wasn’t going to show him that.

If there was one thing she became good at in the years since coming to the  _One Piece_  world… it was lying out of her ass. Sometimes so well that even she believed it.

In a more serious tone, she said, “Rouge found me when I was lost and had nowhere to go, she took me in and cared for me when she didn’t have to. I can’t possibly make up for that, not with her gone.” Which was actually true… Rouge was the first person she met after getting sucked through a portal, landing right smack in the middle of her garden, the woman having witnessed the entire thing.

It was embarrassing really.

But still… Rouge had listened to every word she said, and even helped her get specially made sleeved gloves that covered her entire arm from hand to shoulder, in order to hide her crew tattoos. She took Leith into her own home, even with the knowledge that harboring a displaced, time-travelling Whitebeard Pirate—a crew well-known for being the enemy of her late lover—was just asking for trouble.

And now the only person who knew her origins was gone. Leith was stranded in this wacky world yet again.

“Fine, you can do what you want…” Garp sighed, his shoulders slumping. And while Leith’s opinion of the Vice Admiral wasn’t very high, she knew deep down inside he had good intentions… Even if the path to hell was paved in them.

Not that she was any better, but hey, she was only human.

“But!” he barked, making Leith nearly jump out of her skin as his voice broke through her depressing introspection. “ _I_  get to choose where you both are staying and I’ll have  _no arguments_ , are we clear?”

She gave a snapping salute, having seen the action so many times that she could imitate it perfectly. “Crystal, sir!”

Besides… she already had an idea of where they were heading.


	2. Chapter 2

“Woo hoo, look at him go!” Leith crowed, lounging on her cushion with a wide grin on her face, “Run, little man, run!”

Ace squealed, his chubby arms and legs pumping furiously as he crawled away from a very put upon Dadan, the rotund woman trying her damnedest to catch the little bugger. Leith was only too happy to allow the chaos, a subtle revenge for the little to no help received from the bandits in the eight months since Garp dropped them here on Mt. Colubo.

First impressions of the bandit troupe were dubious at best. Leith had always known they were a cowardly bunch, but to see it up close was a whole ‘nother kettle-o-fish. They were extremely wary of her presence, though Leith doubted she’d helped the matter when Dadan suggested she do  _ all _ the chores after Garp left… She hadn’t known what her expression was, but it must have been quite the doozy if the woman’s shrieking-grovelling reaction was anything to go by.

And to think  _ she _ used to think of herself as a coward... At least she didn't let some grumpy old howler monkey walk all over her.

“You damn witch! Will you do something about your spawn already?!” Dadan cried, both interrupting her train of thought and trying in vain to tug the persistent little gremlin by the seat of his onesie away from the fire pit ashes. Ace had a very determined scowl on his pouty lips, his little fingers just a scant few centimeters from the dust.

Leith snorted. “If you weren't so afraid to pick him up you wouldn't be having this problem,” she snarked, reaching her hands out and pulling her lips into a smile, “Come here, Bug~”

“ _ Ahhhh~! _ ” Ace shrieked, his voice reverberating through the cabin at an ear-shattering pitch, before motoring his little limbs across the floor toward her. Dadan winced, letting go of his clothes to throw her hands over her ears with a dramatic whimper, an action that almost had Leith rolling her eyes.

One would think the old hag would be used to it by now, though the fact that Dadan was even  _ trying _ to watch over the boy showed that she cared more than she let on… Not that Leith was going to leave him with her unattended any time soon. She saw 

She cooed as Ace bulldozed his way into her arms, then rocketed him into the air, much to his screaming delight. “Nyooom!” Leith sounded, holding the the boy under his arms as she “flew” him around, flopping over onto her back so he was held above her. “Oh no! We’re under enemy fire!” she announced, imitating the sounds of a machine gun as she jostled him about.

Ace giggled, throwing his arms and legs out wide, enjoying the abrupt dips and dives Leith took him through, spit flying out of his mouth in uncontrolled bursts as he laughed and squealed.

...Which had the unfortunate effect of getting saliva all down the front of her shirt, but hey, that was just another of the hazards that came with raising kids.

“Don’t know how you stand all that screechin’,” Dadan grumbled, plopping down opposite the carousing pair, gnawing on her cigarette with an intensity that spoke of just how much she wanted a smoke. “He makes enough noise to wake the dead from their graves.”

“Probably because I deal with your bitching every damn day~” Leith simpered sweetly, ignoring the other woman’s scoff while she focused most of her attention on Ace, pulling a series of bizarre faces. She chuckled when he stilled, his expression wrinkling in confusion at the “new” person before him, only to for him to smile when her face cleared back to normal. He huffed a series of rapid breaths and squeaked, kicking his feet excitedly as he reached for her nose. “One would think after all this time you’d be used to it.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” came the gruff response.

Leith didn’t stop the eyeroll this time, her voice taking on a high tinny since the kid had a firm grasp of her schnoz, “Yeah well, if I didn’t know that old ape would badger me till the end of time I wouldn’t be here.”

“Why  _ did  _ he bring you here exactly?” Dadan asked, curiosity peaked, her beady little eyes shrewd as stared into Leith’s own. “He dropped you guys here without so much as a “howdy-do,”all a bluster and threatening us about letting you stay here, but he didn’t tell me squat!” She took a sharp breath in, but realized halfway through that her cigarette wasn’t lit, and just sighed instead, her large lips puckered in a pout. “It ain’t fair and the secrecy’s gonna kill me.”

A dark chuckle and Leith gave the other woman a wry grin, “Well, I guess it’s best you don’t stick your nose in then.”

Dadan damn near swallowed her cigarette, her eyes the size of dinner plates.

The front door slammed to the floor with a resounding crash, the booming voice of a familiar old man growling from the smoking remains, “AND  _ WHERE _ IS MY CUTE GRANDSON?!”

Ace squealed.

“My door!” Dadan screeched.

Leith groaned.

“What do you want, old man?” Leith grumped, begrudgingly allowing Ace to wiggle free so he could scoot his way to Garp’s embrace. Fingers twitched as she watched the Marine grab her ward, a protective part of her bristling in aggression as he smothered the giggling child in kisses and beard rubs.

It was taking a herculean effort not to associate this Garp with the one that would without a doubt lead Ace to the chopping block—who  _ had _ in another time and place.

_ Duty over family my ass, _ she thought, scowling up a storm.

“Why, to see my Grandson, of course!” Garp barked, placing one hand on his hip while the other cradled the baby, his chest puffing up like a rooster as he grinned toothily, “And to make sure your raising him right. All nice and tough, so he can be a strong Marine!”

Her eye twitched, but instead of rising to the bait, Leith reclined and rested her cheek on her fist, a dangerous glint in her eye. “He’s a  _ baby _ not an Olympian, you shitty old goat,” she drawled, her lips quirking in an amused grin when the man scowled, “I’ll train him when he’s damn well old enough.”

He muttered something to himself, it sounded like a string of curses. “You have no idea how dangerous this world is right now,” Garp said, his expression softening as he gazed at Ace, who was currently doing a masterful job of sticking his foot in his mouth, “Times have changed.”

Leith snorted, unimpressed, “Please. I’m well versed in the “dangers” of this world. You don’t have to keep reminding me.” She leaned forward, pressing a finger on the floor and stared into the Vice Admiral’s dark eyes. Serious. “Cut the bullshit, Garp. What are you really here for?”

The man frowned, his expression darkening. “Shiki… The Golden Lion has escaped.”

Dadan gasped, clapping a hand over her heart, gripping at her shirt in a white-knuckled grasp.

Ace remained uncharacteristically silent, perhaps sensing the tense mood of his adoptive grandfather.

Leith blinked.

And blinked again.

“Who?”


End file.
